Auckland has 20,000 colonies of what?

The number of unwanted cats and kittens over the Christmas period has left one SPCA full to the brim.

Every summer, litter upon litter of kittens pour into SPCA clinics across the country, and this year’s no exception.

Over the past month an Auckland clinic has been flooded with the furry friends, receiving as many 30 to 80 a day.

“At the moment we’ve got 450 foster families and each foster family has one or a whole litter of kittens, so it’s probably up around the 600 mark at the moment,” says SPCA Auckland CEO Angela Midgen.

Cats breed from as young as six months and can have up to three litters a year. And with each litter containing between two to four kittens the SPCA says if you find one take it in to your nearest animal shelter.

“This problem of cats being dumped and kittens in litters in parks and boxes and at the end of our driveway and things like that, that would go away if people were responsible and actually had their cat de-sexed,” says Ms Midgen.

With an estimated 20,000 colonies in Auckland alone, animal shelters simply can’t find enough homes to house the kittens.

So there are 20,000 feral cat colonies in Auckland alone, and the problem is people not de-sexing their pets?

That just doesn’t pass the sniff test. Much more likely the vets are all looking to use these stats to drum up some more business.

But the real money will be in dealing to the 20,000 feral cat colonies. Problem is: who will pay?

– 3 News

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. And when he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet, and as a result he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist that takes no prisoners.